Is Just Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:JE) a good place to invest some of your money right now? We can gain invaluable insight to help us answer that question by studying the investment trends of top investors, who employ world-class Ivy League graduates, who are given immense resources and industry contacts to put their financial expertise to work. The top picks of these firms have historically outperformed the market when we account for known risk factors, making them very valuable investment ideas.
Just Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:JE) has seen an increase in activity from the world’s largest hedge funds recently. Our calculations also showed that JE isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds.
In the 21st century investor’s toolkit there are dozens of metrics market participants use to size up their holdings. A couple of the less utilized metrics are hedge fund and insider trading moves. Our researchers have shown that, historically, those who follow the best picks of the elite hedge fund managers can outclass the broader indices by a healthy amount (see the details here).
Let’s take a look at the new hedge fund action encompassing Just Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:JE).
Hedge fund activity in Just Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:JE)
Heading into the second quarter of 2019, a total of 10 of the hedge funds tracked by Insider Monkey held long positions in this stock, a change of 11% from the fourth quarter of 2018. By comparison, 9 hedge funds held shares or bullish call options in JE a year ago. So, let’s see which hedge funds were among the top holders of the stock and which hedge funds were making big moves.
The largest stake in Just Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:JE) was held by Ardsley Partners, which reported holding $9.6 million worth of stock at the end of March. It was followed by Renaissance Technologies with a $4.8 million position. Other investors bullish on the company included GLG Partners, Arrowstreet Capital, and PDT Partners.
As one would reasonably expect, specific money managers have jumped into Just Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:JE) headfirst. D E Shaw, managed by D. E. Shaw, established the most outsized position in Just Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:JE). D E Shaw had $0.1 million invested in the company at the end of the quarter.
Let’s now take a look at hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Just Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:JE). These stocks are Independent Bank Corporation (NASDAQ:IBCP), Peapack-Gladstone Financial Corp (NASDAQ:PGC), El Pollo LoCo Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:LOCO), and Triple-S Management Corp. (NYSE:GTS). This group of stocks’ market valuations resemble JE’s market valuation.
| Ticker | No of HFs with positions | Total Value of HF Positions (x1000) | Change in HF Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| IBCP | 11 | 47151 | 0 |
| PGC | 16 | 73656 | 1 |
| LOCO | 16 | 26986 | 0 |
| GTS | 12 | 76726 | 0 |
| Average | 13.75 | 56130 | 0.25 |
View table here if you experience formatting issues.
As you can see these stocks had an average of 13.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $56 million. That figure was $20 million in JE’s case. Peapack-Gladstone Financial Corp (NASDAQ:PGC) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand Independent Bank Corporation (NASDAQ:IBCP) is the least popular one with only 11 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Just Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:JE) is even less popular than IBCP. Hedge funds clearly dropped the ball on JE as the stock delivered strong returns, though hedge funds’ consensus picks still generated respectable returns. Our calculations showed that top 20 most popular stocks among hedge funds returned 6.2% in Q2 through June 19th and outperformed the S&P 500 ETF (SPY) by nearly 3 percentage points. A small number of hedge funds were also right about betting on JE as the stock returned 26% during the same period and outperformed the market by an even larger margin.
Disclosure: None. This article was originally published at Insider Monkey.
